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A Friday List: Foods That Confuse Me

June 15, 2012

As I go to the grocery store more and more I see food that I just don’t understand! I guess I’ve just gotten so used to the idea of cost, quality, and nutrition over convenience that things concocted for convenience just don’t make a lot of sense to me! Someone please explain….

  • Frozen Peanut Butter and Jelly “Sandwiches”

Clearly, I am missing something here.  Is it really that much trouble to spread peanut butter and jelly on a couple of slices of bread and slap them together?  I’ve seen these things up close.  They have about a million ingredients and there is nothing appealing about peanut butter and jelly literally oozing out of the mushiest previously frozen white bread that you’ve ever seen.  Gross.  And these are served in school cafeterias!

  • Whole Wheat Crackers….That Aren’t Whole Wheat

Honestly, it can be a challenge to find whole wheat crackers that are whole wheat.  The crackers in this picture are made by a well-known “health food” company.  Out of four or five boxes of “wheat” crackers, only one of them was whole wheat.  Now, if you don’t want to buy whole wheat crackers, that’s your prerogative.  I buy crackers that aren’t whole wheat.  But I don’t buy “wheat” crackers that aren’t whole wheat, and it seems like a bit (or more than a bit?) of false advertisement (I just said that as ad-verr-tis-ment like a British person in my head!) to put out wheat crackers and have the first ingredient either be “enriched flour” or “wheat (not whole wheat) flour”.  Soap box-read the labels!

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  • Single Serve “Gourmet” Oatmeal Cups

Again, since when is instant oatmeal too much trouble?  And the much healthier old-fashioned oats take like five minutes.  But apparently we now find it necessary to buy a fancy cup of oatmeal that costs about $1.50 that contains dried fruit, nuts, and no doubt a blooming ton of sugar?  Talk about profit margin.

  • Parmigiano-Reggiano Bites?

Okay, again….profit margin?  Do you see the price on that?  $7.99!  Now, Parmigiano-Reggiano is not cheap-$16-$17 a pound-but this is ridiculous!  And I love Parmigiano-Reggiano, but it’s not a cheese that I really want to take a big bite of.

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  • Flavored Apples!!!

Apples have a flavor.  It’s called apple.

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  • Powdered Icing Flavors

Now, I’m all for flavored icings, but really?  You buy an unflavored “base” and mix in a packet of icing flavor, like bubble gum or mint.  Because apparently mint extract is too complicated?  A few years ago I no doubt would have found this idea intriguing….but now I just find it confusing.

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  • Single-Serve Coffee

Sorry to offend the K-cup lovers out there…but I just don’t get this trend!  I am a die-hard coffee drinker, but (a) these little boxes of single-serve coffee are so expensive (and people call my whole bean coffee expensive!); and (b) I just can’t imagine that it’s that good!  I do understand the convenience of just making one cup…but if I just want to make enough for one cup….I just make enough for one cup!

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  • Ready-made Hard Boiled Eggs

When I worked at a pizza chain with a salad bar in high school, we got bags of peeled, hard-boiled eggs to chop up and put on the salad bar.  Now, you can purchase them at the grocery store.  I can honestly say I’ve never had the thought that I wished I could buy hard-boiled eggs because boiling them myself was just too much work.  Seriously.  Boil the water and let them sit for ten minutes. Done.

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  • Pancake and Waffle Batter in a Can!

And especially organic pancake and waffle batter in a can!  Because adding water to a mix is just too much work?  Honestly, I still don’t get the idea of Reddi-Whip (is that how you spell it?) because it’s just so simple to pour some fresh, unadulterated heavy cream into a bowl with a little sugar and whip it into oblivion with a mixer.  Why would you pay more to eat some propellants?  I am sure that you can imagine that I make my pancakes and waffles from scratch, which is not that much work….maybe ten minutes to put it all together?….so I really don’t get the thought that goes into deciding that adding water to a boxed mix is just too difficult.

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So…just a few things to think about. Does it really take more time to spread peanut butter and jelly between two slices of bread than to eat some processed fluff? Is it worth it to pay $5 for a can of pancake batter? I am not a single serve fan….why not cut up your own cheese and put it in a bag? Or divide your chips up into bags when you get home from the store?

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Filed Under: Chattavore Chats Tagged With: lists, writing By Mary // Chattavore 8 Comments

The Rice Boxx-June 9, 2012

Blackberry-Buttermilk Clafoutis with Lavender Crème Anglaise

Comments

  1. dava says

    June 15, 2012 at 4:41 pm

    Here's another: that soup that you heat up and drink out of the container. Because adding a little water is too much trouble? Using a bowl and a spoon is too hard? And what about GoGurt? Grossssss! Or green ketchup? You hit a nerve with this one ;)
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      June 15, 2012 at 4:53 pm

      Hahahahaha! I'll probably add to it. GoGurt is a big one for me. Do they still even make green ketchup? I think even kids couldn't get down with that one! I came up with this list as I walked through the grocery store last week. Honestly, I was a little afraid I was going to get busted snapping these photos!
      Reply
  2. Michele says

    June 15, 2012 at 4:52 pm

    It's amazing what people consider food these days in the first place. It's even more amazing what people are willing to buy as convenient food. A little prep and planning go a long way for a fraction of the cost to do at home.
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      June 15, 2012 at 4:54 pm

      Truth!
      Reply
  3. Vanderbilt Wife says

    June 15, 2012 at 8:22 pm

    OK, I have to say, as somene who can NOT seem to make a decent hard-boiled eggs, they don't seem like such a bad thing. Plus you don't have to peel them. Hehe. My mom buys dried orange zest, which has always confused me, when fresh is so easy, cheap, and yummy! We also never had real mashed potatoes unless it was a holiday when I was growing up. Because obviously throwing some potatoes in water is really difficult. I thankfully have not had instant potatoes in years .... for good reason.
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      June 15, 2012 at 9:13 pm

      Ha! I know what you mean....my deviled eggs are always so ugly, no matter what tricks I use to peel them nicely. However, America's Test Kitchen tweeted this a few days ago, so I'm interested in trying it out:"To peel hardboiled eggs easily, break shells after cooking and soak in ice water to cool. Water under shells lets you peel easily." I have actually bought dried orange zest before, when a recipe called for it...but these days I think I'd grate it myself! Believe it or not, I used to buy instant mashed potatoes all. the. time. I cringe thinking about it now! It was when we were first married and I hadn't developed a lot of kitchen skills, but I knew how to make mashed potatoes, so I'm not sure WHAT my reasoning was!
      Reply
  4. Jenifer says

    June 15, 2012 at 10:58 pm

    We have a Kureig & love it...but I'm too cheap & too much of a tree hugging hippy to be ok with buying the cups...we buy whole bean & use the "my k cup" to put our own coffee in. We also use it for loose leaf tea...so much nicer than drinking tea with all the leaves that escape the teaball floating around. I will attest to the boiled egg peeling trick...it works for us. I also have found putting the eggs in the water after the water has heated up some(but before it starts to boils) also helps.
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      June 15, 2012 at 11:10 pm

      Now, I could definitely get down with the idea of grinding my own coffee to use in a Keurig.....I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to brew a single cup of coffee at work (at home I'd just do a tiny pot), so it would totally come in handy then. Those little boxes of coffee are just so freaking expensive, I could never justify buying them!
      Reply

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About Chattavore

Hi, I'm Mary! Welcome to Chattavore, a destination for people who want to feed themselves and their families well every day! Life can be crazy, which means that getting dinner on the table can be a challenge (more often than not!) and my mission is to take all your favorite recipes and figure out how to serve them on a Tuesday.

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